1Professor, Department of Child Health Nursing, Amrita College of Nursing, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi
2Msc Nursing Student, Amrita College of Nursing, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi
NNS is a continuous behavior practiced unconsciously, leading to a deleterious oral habit. The purpose of the study was to estimate the prevalence of NNS among the pre-school children in selected schools at Ernakulam.
Design adapted was descriptive survey. Mothers of 300 preschool children were selected by convenience sampling method, using a semi-structured questionnaire.
The prevalence of NNS habits practiced were 56(18.67%). Among the 300 children, the prevalence rate was higher in girls 35(21.21%) than the boys 21(15.56%). The common sucking habit was TS 37(12.3%). The oral problems were found more among the children with NNS 27(48.2%). A significant association found between the prevalence of NNS and birth spacing (p= 0.013), oral problems (p= 0.001), frequency of feeding from 1 to 1 ½ years (p= 0.000) and 1 ½ to 2 years (p= 0.046).
The prevalence of NNS depends on the breast feeding practices. The other sucking patterns followed by TS were FS 15(5%) and the PS 4(1.3%). Some children had the practice ofcloth sucking 40(13.3%), toy sucking 22(7.3%), and hair sucking 10(3.3%). The study findings recommended strongly to conduct further study on the best controlling measures of NNS.
NNS - Non Nutritive Sucking, TS- Thumb Sucking, FS- Finger Sucking, PS- Pacifier Sucking
